New paintings for this months art show at the Beacher Cafe

Student Art Show 2011-"Experimental" at the Mckay house and Varley Art Gallery

This eclectic show features over 15 artists from
the York Durham Group of Artists produced under the tutelage of Fine Arts Professor Andrew Hamilton. It encompasses a wide variety of art subjects and differing mediums. Creativity and self-exploration
drive the show and the artists.














A highlight of the show is that most paintings are the students second or third painting. All are without drawing and with a very limited range of colours. Three colours plus white were used in order for the student's to learn colour theory and mixing as well. I am very proud and humbled by the outcome of this amazing art show.

Students working on their landscape paintings

Canadian Landscape Painting Class
No Drawing and learning to paint with a limited palette.

Walking on the beach and pondering a new future

40 Art quotes I have submitted to Robert Genn's Painters Key

Andrew Hamilton - From the Acrylics category:

Acrylic is the only painting medium that can be all mediums - it can act like watercolour, it can act like oils, and it has its own innate properties.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Activity category:

Painting is an act, not a conversation.



Andrew Hamilton - From the Artists category:

An artist's job is to show people what was always there but they never noticed.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Colour category:

Take the time to make the correct colour for your painting once - so you paint 7 paintings one time rather than 1 painting 7 times! Andrew Hamilton - From the Communication category:

The heart is the shortest distance between two people.


Andrew Hamilton - From the Critics category:

Those who can't, critique.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Critics category:

One reviewer wrote of Monet's work: "The most absurd daubs in that laughable collection of absurdities" and another stated that "Monet seems to have declared war on beauty." So much for critics.



Andrew Hamilton - From the Discipline category:

Art is the only discipline where saying less means more.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Dissatisfaction category:

Monet was known to visit the Louvre in his old painting smock and, when the guards would look the other way, he would fix his paintings with paint brushes he had hidden. Even the master is never quite satisfied.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Drawing category:

Draw as if the object being drawn has never existed - because it hasn't.
Andrew Hamilton - From the Effort category:

Perspiration can make up the difference between talent and having none.
Andrew Hamilton - From the Exploration category:

An artist's job is to explore and paint the elemental forces of nature.


Andrew Hamilton - From the Expression category:

At the end of your brush is the the tip of your soul.


It's not the light that makes form, it is the shadows. As an artist, one is always trying to be free, especially from oneself.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Gradation category:

Shading is blending the shadow into nothingness.
Andrew Hamilton - From the Interpretation category:

Cameras record, artists interpret.



Andrew Hamilton - From the Knowledge category:

To know that you don't know - that is the most important trait in an artist.


Andrew Hamilton - From the Masters category:

Van Gogh failed as a minister, failed as an art dealer, failed as an art student, failed in love, and failed to sell paintings, but he has never failed to inspire us!



Andrew Hamilton - From the Materials category:

It's not the tool you use, but the Tool using the tool.



Andrew Hamilton - From the Mistakes category:

There is no such thing as a mistake in Acrylic painting. You can wash it out up to 45 seconds after drying or wait and paint over it.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Nature category:

Feeling the wind on your face, and hearing the song of the birds, and watching the sun move across the land is to know there is no greater job than to be free to paint. Andrew Hamilton - From the Obsession category:

Being an artist is not a choice; it is an obsession.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Oils category:

Oil painting is like having a mistress: seductive, endlessly fascinating, but eternally elusive.



Andrew Hamilton - From the Painting category:

Only two things are essential elements to painting: see and do!

Andrew Hamilton - From the Perseverance category:

Being an artist is like being the condemned Sisyphus who ceaselessly rolled a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. The artist must start with a blank canvas, work and finish only to start endlessly anew. (Andrew Hamilton)


Andrew Hamilton - From the Photography category:

Sketching is my camera!


Andrew Hamilton - From the Practice category:

Maxim for the Group of Seven: Never a day without a line. (Andrew Hamilton)



Andrew Hamilton - From the Profession category:

If you see 100 paintings while on the drive to work, then you are doing the wrong work.


Andrew Hamilton - From the Purpose category:

An artist's job is to say the most with the least.


Andrew Hamilton - From the Seeing category:

See like a laser, focus like a laser, but paint like a myopic librarian. Remember, Monet painted his best creative work while he was almost blind.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Senses category:

Art communicates through the senses - a chef through taste and smell, a musician through sound, and a visual artist through sight. But they all have one thing in common - they all lead directly to the heart.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Simplicity category:

Simplify until one brushstroke represents a million pine needles.


Andrew Hamilton - From the Subject category:

It's not what you paint that makes you an artist, but that you paint!

Andrew Hamilton - From the Success category:

Inspiration plus discipline equals success.


Andrew Hamilton - From the Suffering category:

Painting is nothing more than bleeding on the canvas.

Andrew Hamilton - From the Thinking category:

Paint what you see - not what you think you see!
Andrew Hamilton - From the Vision category:

In painting, vision has nothing to do with sight.

They say that the eye is the window to the soul. But it is the soul that is the window. (Andrew Hamilton)



Andrew Hamilton - From the Wonder category:

Look at everything in the world as if you are seeing it for the first time, and paint everything as if you were seeing it for the last time.

Andrew Hamilton discusses technical aspects of largest woodblock print in Canada

Largest woodblock Print in Canada at the Juried fine art Diploma Art Show

Andrew Hamilton instructing and overseeing the Largest woodblock Print in Canada

discussing inking of the two foot by four foot plywood woodblock

Largest woodblock Print in Canada-74 feet

inking up the blocks




inking up the blocks

Andrew Hamilton Art Show 2008 at the Varley Art Gallery

Andrew Hamilton .ART Professor juries ART Show for people with disabilities

Art show 'a wonderful bridge to inclusion'
About 100 original works will be on display at Unionville gallery
Friday, March 13, 2009 -- Natalie Miller


From large, colourful abstract paintings to three-dimensional sculptures, an upcoming art exhibition will showcase the diverse works of Ontario artists who have an intellectual disability.

The IDEAL-WAY, a non-profit organization that supports people who have an intellectual disability, received more than 500 pieces of artwork through its first province-wide art contest. Of the 500 entries, a juror has selected about 100 pieces which will be on display in the McKay Art Centre at 197 Main St. in Unionville next month. The IDEAL-WAY Art Exhibition runs from April 1 to 5.

Both the IDEAL-WAY and the art contest's juror are impressed with the calibre of the work submitted and optimistic about the potential impact of the show.

"After seeing the works, it confirms my opinion that art is beyond disability," says Andrew Hamilton, juror, Canadian landscape painter and fine arts professor.

"The artists who participated showed dedication and overcame many obstacles. While art provides an outlet it is predominantly a soul-searching exploration."

The IDEAL-WAY says as an organization it is experiencing "widespread excitement at the number (of entries) and delight at the high quality.

"We are humbled by the response from all corners of Ontario," says Addie Daabous, executive director.

"This validates our beliefs in 'seeing ability in disability.' We were also impressed with the effort that so many organizations, schools and families put into supporting the IDEAL-WAY art contest."

Daabous notes several Community Living associations helped promote the contest and as a result IDEAL-WAY received entries from communities including Toronto, Thunder Bay, Huronia and Lennox and Addington.

While the art show is intended to provide an opportunity for people to showcase their work in a gallery setting, there is also an education component as well, Daabous notes.

"We hope to engage communities throughout the province to see what (people) can do rather than what they cannot do. The IDEAL art contest is one example of IDEAL-WAY's unique approach to positively re-educating mainstream society by publicly empowering (people who have an intellectual disability)."

Daabous says, for instance, while there may be one or two students from a particular school who have a piece in the show, their entire class, which includes students who don't have an intellectual disability, are attending to support their peers.

"This is a wonderful bridge to inclusion. These exceptional individuals have talents which the average mainstream person may never otherwise know. We are all equal, only different, and we all have our unique gifts."

One hundred per cent of any proceeds from the show, including works sold, go directly to the artists.

Admission to the show is free.

If you have feedback on this article, e-mail natalie(at)axiomnews.ca or call the newsroom at 800-294-0051.

This article may be reproduced without seeking further permission if used in proper context and with the following credit line: "Reprinted from Community Living Leaders, an online news news service of Community Living Ontario. www.communitylivingontario.ca."

Sketch Hunting-March Pictures to paint

Ideal Way art Contest

'Art is beyond disability'
Non-profit holds art contest for people who have an intellectual disability
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 -- Natalie Miller

Each day after school, a teenage boy who has autism rushes up to his room seeking seclusion to create his art.

He hasn't shared his work with his family yet but is planning to enter his creations in an upcoming art contest.

This is one story IDEAL-WAY's executive director has heard since the non-profit organization that supports people who have an intellectual disability launched the contest. Ontario residents can project their artistic voice by submitting works by Dec. 31.

The motivation for the art contest is to showcase ability and break down stereotypes about intellectual disability, IDEAL-WAY says.

"It's another way to promote awareness and education," says executive director Addie Daabous. "Seeing it is believing it."

Residents of this province of any age who have an intellectual disability can enter up to two original art pieces created in 2008, including paintings, sketches, drawings, photography, sculpture and pottery.

Andrew Hamilton, Canadian landscape painter, fine arts professor and former gallery curator, will chair the judging panel. Hamilton says he got involved in the contest because children who have an intellectual disability made an impression on him when he was a teen-aged camp counsellor and sees this as a chance to give something back.

"I don't see there being a barrier or line between ability and disability, especially in the arts," says Hamilton. "In my experience, everybody is an artist and they just need an opportunity to have that brought out."

The judging will take place in January and five grand-prize winners will be announced, while there will be several other give-a-ways as well. The work will be judged on artistic merit alone without the juror knowing the names, ages or communities of residence of the participants until after the pieces have been chosen.

IDEAL-WAY has already received several submissions and the response from this community "has been fantastic," Daabous notes. The association's CEO, Donald Yeo, expects the artwork to be of high calibre. IDEAL-WAY earlier held a poetry contest and Toronto's current Poet Laureate and contest judge Pier Giorgio Di Cicco said one of the entries would be “competitive” in a mainstream contest, Yeo notes.

"We have every reason to believe this will exceed (expectations)" as well, Yeo says.

IDEAL-WAY's founding director, Robert Hajjar, who has Down syndrome, would like to see an art show in the spring to showcase the body of work submitted. While art isn't his niche, he has friends who create "beautiful artwork," he says.

"I'm really excited about the art contest," Hajjar says. "I hope some of my friends enter because they are good artists."

IDEAL-WAY's purpose is to provide better lives for people who have an intellectual disability through community education, relief of poverty and literacy and recreational programs.

To learn more about the IDEAL-WAY's art contest, visit IDEAL-Way's website and click on IDEAL Art Contest 2008 contest for rules, regulations and submission information.

If you have feedback on this article, e-mail natalie(at)axiomnews.ca or call the newsroom at 800-294-0051.

This article may be reproduced without seeking further permission if used in proper context and with the following credit line: "Reprinted from Community Living Leaders, an online news news service of Community Living Ontario. www.communitylivingontario.ca."

Working in earnest and Plein Aire on the Toronto Islands

Visit to Ottawa and the Art Gallery

Andrew and Natalie in Toronto for the weekend